For night three of Fall for Dance at New York City Center, it was just me and rtb instead of the four who attended nights one and two. We were attending the night there was no dance lesson and that would be true for me for nights four and five also. And despite the names of several ballet companies for all five nights, I was pleasantly surprised that several of the dances they performed were either modern or theatrical or both.

All photos are taken from the NY City Center site or the internet.

I was very surprised to see flamenco opening the program, since that type of dance is usually reserved to close the night. Juan Tomás de la Molía performed Bulería de la Molía with three men singing acapella and clapping next to him or around him. The three singers wore black suits and Molía wore a beige suit, which I thought was a different choice for flamenco. There were a lot of very fast steps and bullfighting mimicry. Also, a lot of reaching out for audience approval. All the dancing took place downstage on a slate floor that must have been mic’d underneath. Flamenco is one of my favorite dances and I was underwhelmed by Molía. Usually there are musicians on stage with the dancer(s) in addition to the singers and the performances are just more dramatic, which I love.

Choreography: Juan Tomás de la Molía

Staging: Manuel Liñán

Lighting Design: Valentín Donaire

Lighting Supervisor: Isaac Castillo

Stage Manager: Lori Wekselblatt

Road Manager: Jomary Peña

Singers: Sebastián Sánchez (“Sebastián del Puerto”), José Astarida (“El Pechuguita”), Juan Núñez Peña (“Juan de la María”)

It felt like a lot of the audience was there for the Israeli group Lior Tavori Dance Company performing the US premiere of Crust. The dance starts in silence. The dancers, dressed in street clothes, except for the occasional sparkly blouse, shirts cut in half, and a man in a blouse, stand along the edge of an Oriental rug. They skitter across the rug and leap. Lots of leaping. Couples getting together and then pushing each other away. There is violence and there is sex. Spoken words along the lines of “Congratulations,” “You were born,” and “You have a happy birthday.” Continued leaping and pushing and carrying. There is a long fluorescent light above the rug and at one point there is only light on the rug. And they one by one they lie still and the stage goes black but the dance is not over yet. I could hear a news report being played at a very low volume and I thought, “Could it be?” And it was – Simon & Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night,” which I thought was an odd choice for an Israeli dance company but later reading the description, it made sense. They lift their arms up and lift again. Description from the internet – “Summer and winter, seasons and holidays. Not everyone will be taken to the future. Crust is a work about Israel and the world, twenty-twenty-four. Meeting – glance – disconnection. Penetrating eyes. Red, dense smoke obscures the vision. Forbidden pleasure appears. Intrusion into territory with unclear boundaries.”

Choreography: Lior Tavori

Music: Noam Helfer

Staging: Einat Betsalel

Scenic Design: Lior Tavori

Costume Design: Harel Lissman

Lighting Design: Rotem Elroy

Dramaturg: Noa Wagner

Stage Manager: Einat Betsalel

Dancers: Stav Azari, Noa Garber, Simon Gnagy, Jazzy Kahn, Joshua Sutton, Liad Tavori Gennosar, Naor Walker

After seeing The Royal Ballet’s US premiere of Paganini – The First Virtuoso, I understood why this performance was the last of the night. This piece is part of the McRae/Vassilev Project. During the performance, I noticed that they all had similar haircuts. It was later, when I was on Steven McRae’s Instagram that I found out that everyone was wearing a Paganini wig. All four performers wore tails with red lining in the jacket. McRae comes out to a spotlight and what I originally thought was a cane but turned out to be a bow that he tapped and scraped around him in a circle at the edge of the spot. Violinist Vasko Vassilev stood on top of the piano in tails and combat boots. McRae mimicked Vassilev’s moves while running the bow across various parts of his body. Pianist Pamela Tan-Nicholson came out to perform and McRae danced and spun around the piano. He did sit on the bench next to her and she pushed him off and out of her way. Later McRae came out with a guitar with the back facing out and played it percussively. Sarah Lamb danced solo and then McRae, having changed into ballet shoes, joined her. They were accompanied by the violin and some recorded music. Vassilev takes one and then two strings off the violin and still plays beautifully. The dancers dance a pas de deux with the violin and piano. McRae lifts the lid off the piano and smoke pours out (I kept thinking the piano would be out of tune because of this but it never was). (The smoke went downstage and covered the people in the first row. I do not know how they could see anything for a while.) Both the musicians join the dancers downstage for some stomp and tap dancing (McRae is back in shoes and the Tan-Nicholson is wearing high heels). Throughout, there were title cards and sometimes video on the screen in the back. The musicianship was brilliant, as was the dancing and the choreography. Another favorite for this year.

Director, The Royal Ballet: Kevin O’Hare CBE

Director of Creative Programming & Strategy, The Royal Ballet: Emma Southworth

Original Concept: Natalie Abrahami, Steven McRae, Vasko Vassilev

Director: Natalie Abrahami

Choreography: Loughlan Prior

Music Arrangement: Pamela Tan Nicholson & Vasko Vassilev

Set & Costume Design: Anisha Fields

Lighting Design: Prema Mehta

Videography: Tal Rosner

Sound Design: Max Pappenheim

Additional Choreography: Steven McRae

Senior Repetiteur: Samira Saidi

Senior Producer: Hannah Mayhew

Producer: Fidelma Hanrahan

Artistic Associate: Jenny Wheeler

Deputy Stage Manager: Alexandra Kettell